Research
The Inturrisi Lab created two pain registries (New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center and The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center) with longitudinal data to compare cancer patients and non-cancer patients treated with opioids for the reduction of chronic pain. The objectives of the registries are to determine those patient characteristics and treatments (drug and nondrug) that are associated with better outcomes for chronic pain patients receiving treatments at the outpatient pain clinics at WCMC and MSKCC. The collaboration involves the point of care clinicians and staff, and WCMC faculty from Pharmacology and Anesthesiology, the institutional Electronic Health Records (ITS service) and the Webcore service at MSKCC.
Bio
Charles E. Inturrisi, Ph.D., is professor of pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medical College. He also holds appointments with the Pain and Palliative Care Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and the Laboratory of the Biology of Addictive Diseases at The Rockefeller University. Dr. Inturrisi’s current research activities are focused on determining the comparative effectiveness of interventions used for chronic pain management. This research is examining prospectively and retrospectively the long-term outcomes of treatments for chronic cancer and noncancer pain received by patients at four New York City hospital-based outpatient pain clinics. The effectiveness information obtained will allow a determination of which patients benefit from the currently available interventions used for the management of chronic pain and the cost-effectiveness of these treatments, which should improve pain management worldwide. Dr. Inturrisi continues to have an interest in the role of glutamate receptors in injury-induced pain, opioid tolerance, dependence, and addictive behaviors. This preclinical research employs molecular genetic approaches (Cre-loxP and siRNA) to produce spatial knockouts of selected receptors and signaling proteins. These studies are intended to discover new treatments for pain and drug addiction. Dr. Inturrisi has been teaching Weill Cornell medical and graduate students about pain and opioids for the past 40 years.
Distinctions:
- Honorary Fellowship Awardee of the Weill Cornell Medical College Alumni Association-2018.
- Chair Grant Review Committee, The Rita Allen Foundation, 92 Nassau Street, Third Floor, Princeton, NJ 08542.
- Member, Federal Pain Research Strategy workgroup on Chronic Pain, of the National Pain Strategy (NIH)
- Methadone Guidelines Committee –Palliative Medicine MSKCC